5 WildApricot Alternatives to Power Your Association

One key to maintaining a thriving association is effective member management. Fortunately, today’s associations can choose from a wide range of association and member management platforms to streamline operations, improve member experiences, and support long-term growth

While many organizations rely on WildApricot to manage memberships and day-to-day operations, some associations eventually outgrow traditional member management needs. As member expectations evolve, organizations often look for platforms that can better support engagement, community building, events, learning programs, sponsorship initiatives, and other activities that contribute to long-term retention and growth

This comprehensive guide explores alternative member engagement platforms tailored for evolving organizations. We break down the top contenders so you can make an informed decision for your community. 

What is WildApricot?

WildApricot is an AMS specializing in member engagement. While it primarily serves associations, other groups, such as nonprofits, clubs, and chambers of commerce, also use its services. 

Many associations choose WildApricot because it combines many association management features into one platform. Some of its top features include:

• Member Management: Monitor each member’s engagement history over time, and see their entire lifecycle from a single screen. 
• Website Builder: Create custom association landing pages through the intuitive drag-and-drop website builder. 
• Payment Management: Receive payments directly through member portals, automatically generate digital invoices, and update member records upon payment.
• Event Management: Create registration forms, send event reminders, and track attendee lists. 
• Emails and Communication: Send targeted emails and newsletters to your members based on open rates and click-through metrics for your campaigns.  

From payments to events, WildApricot is a good choice for managing internal operations, eliminating the need for complicated spreadsheets.

Why Explore WildApricot Alternatives?

There are several pros to using WildApricot, but it also has drawbacks. Reviews on Capterra provide insight into why you might want to pick another platform: 

• Limited Integrations: While WildApricot offers a wide range of features, it does not integrate with many other systems that organizations use, making it difficult to manage association activities in a single platform.  
• Lack of Website Customization: There is minimal flexibility for associations to customize platform features, and advanced customization requires technical support. This makes it difficult for associations to tailor the platform to their organization’s unique needs. 
• Unsatisfactory Customer Support: Organizations struggle to get troubleshooting support because there is no live support. Communications via chat or email are often limited, so customers are sometimes forced to resolve the issue on their own. 
• Rising Price Point: While the upfront cost of using WildApricot is reasonable for many organizations, additional costs and pricing adjustments add up quickly, yet users report no significant improvements. 
• Lack of Scaling for Growing Organizations: Larger organizations have reported membership management challenges, including dysfunctional membership directories, notifications sent to inactive members, and difficulties retrieving basic membership information. 
• Missing Continuous Engagement: Event registrations, membership renewals, email communications, and community engagement often operate in separate workflows. As organizations grow, many begin looking for platforms that create a more connected member experience across the entire engagement journey rather than managing each activity independently.

If you think these drawbacks will significantly impact your organization’s operations, you can explore the other options we have listed for you. 

Tradewing: Best WildApricot Alternative for Engagement-Driven Associations

Tradewing is an engagement platform designed to help associations create more connected member experiences. Built around the principles of Engagement Infrastructure, Tradewing brings together community engagement, events, learning programs, sponsorship initiatives, and member communications in a single ecosystem. This helps organizations increase participation, strengthen retention, grow non-dues revenue opportunities, and deliver ongoing value to both members and sponsors.

Let’s look at what Tradewing can offer: 

• Community engagement tools: Tradewing helps associations build custom online communities where members can easily connect with their peers. In particular, people can use the lively discussion boards and the direct messaging tools to start and engage in conversations with others. 
• Multimedia resource hub: With Tradewing, you can keep all your essential documents, webinar recordings, and training videos neatly organized in one secure hub. Your members can also upload and view material in a searchable library, ready whenever they want to share or learn something new. 

• Integrated event hosting: You can easily host virtual and hybrid events without having to rely on third-party apps. Tradewing’s system lets you handle sign-ups, sell tickets, and run live video streams right from your dashboard. 
• Sponsorship management tools: Move beyond traditional sponsorship packages by enabling year-round sponsor participation through communities, educational content, events, resource hubs, and engagement campaigns. Organizations can create more meaningful sponsor relationships while generating measurable non-dues revenue opportunities

• Accessible mobile app: Tradewing keeps your members connected wherever they are with a dedicated mobile app designed for on-the-go use. Push notifications alert your members to news, announcements, and upcoming events, driving higher participation rates. 
• Engagement Analytics: Gain visibility into how members engage across events, communities, content, learning programs, and other activities. This helps staff identify participation trends, uncover engagement gaps, and better understand what drives retention.

In addition to these features, Tradewing is affordable for organizations of all sizes. Setting up the platform is straightforward and doesn’t require additional tools or a dedicated tech team, further reducing costs. 

Overall, Tradewing is great for its strong community building, intuitive design, quick setup, facilitation of knowledge sharing, excellent customer service, and cost-effectiveness. 

Other WildApricot Alternatives

Higher Logic: Best WildApricot Alternative For Enterprise-Size Organizations 

Higher Logic is a heavy-duty platform built specifically to handle massive, global associations with huge member lists. It has the tech needed to keep large volumes of data coming from across the world organized. 

Key Features:

• Advanced communication workflows: It uses smart, automated campaigns and AI digests to reach specific member segments with the right, personalized message at every stage of their journey.

• Deep CRM integrations: It plugs right into your existing AMS and CRM databases, syncing everything back and forth so your global team always has a clear, real-time view of member activity.

• Robust moderation tools: Built-in keyword filters and approval queues let your team easily weed out bad content and keep massive, large-scale community forums clean and high-quality without the stress.

While users enjoy these key features, there has also been criticism on Higher Logic’s backend administrative interface, with reviewers often describing it as clunky and counterintuitive. Since the platform is aimed at mid- to large-sized associations, it is difficult for smaller organizations to afford. 

Pricing: Higher Logic does not release a standard pricing model online, as costs will depend on your organization’s size and specific needs. 

MemberClicks: Best WildApricot Alternative For Member Management 

MemberClicks is a great tool for busy teams who want to stop doing manual admin work and put their database on autopilot. It allows you to step away from tedious data entry and focus on building a better community. 

Key Features:

• Unified membership database: This centralized system stores all profile details, engagement history, and event records in a single cloud-based repository, ensuring your staff always works with real-time, accurate data.

• Automated financial reporting: It automatically tracks dues, processes transactions, and integrates with accounting software like QuickBooks to generate instant financial insights.

• Streamlined application workflows: The platform automates the entire onboarding process by guiding new prospects through digital forms, collecting initial fees, and instantly updating their status upon approval.

MemberClicks offers useful features, but users have noted difficulties with building event registration forms and managing website content. Integrations also aren’t as smooth as they were promised to be.

Pricing: Core packages run from $3,500 and $4,500 annually, depending on your organization’s exact size. 

Join It: Best WildApricot Alternative For Clubs

Join It is a simple, all-in-one system that helps small, passionate organizations do away with complicated spreadsheets. Setup takes just a few minutes, making it easy for volunteer leaders to start working immediately.

Key Features:

• Digital membership cards: Members can easily download brand-customized virtual passes directly into their Apple or Google Wallets, featuring scannable QR codes that update automatically when membership status changes.
• Automated billing systems: The platform handles recurring subscription payments and automated email reminders through secure payment processors, eliminating manual follow-ups and reducing administrative workloads.
• Seamless event ticketing: By integrating with platforms like Eventbrite, clubs can offer member-only discounts, track event attendance, and sync ticket orders directly into their core database. 

Because Join It is catered to small groups, larger organizations, or those looking for an all-in-one platform may need more than what Join It can offer. It lacks the deep CRM analytics that large associations need, and offloads a number of functions like ticketing and payment processing to different integrations. 

Pricing: Join It offers a Starter Package ($26.10/month), Total package ($89.10/month), and Extra Package ($179.10/month), all with free trials. 

MemberPress: Best WildApricot Alternative For Website Design 

MemberPress is a handy plugin that turns any standard WordPress site into a full-blown membership hub with total design control. You get to keep your existing web setup while seamlessly adding powerful paywalls and online courses. 

Key Features: 

• Robust content protection: You can restrict access to specific pages, posts, categories, tags, or digital downloads using customizable rules that guarantee only active members can view your premium content.
• Integrated learning management: Create, manage, and sell comprehensive online training programs directly within WordPress using a built-in, drag-and-drop course builder complete with progress tracking and quizzes.
• Flexible payment gateways: Accept one-time or automated recurring subscription fees by integrating your site with top processors like Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net

MemberPress, just like many platforms, also has its disadvantages. A common complaint is billing transparency. Users often get a discounted rate for the first year, only to be caught unaware when the standard price applies to the auto-renewing subscription. There are also frustrations with the limitations of appearance-editing features. 

Pricing: MemberPress offers three pricing plans: $199.50/year for those looking to start a business, $349.50 for those who want to professionalize and engage their audience, and $499.50 for those who want automation features for scaling.

The Final Call 

Choosing the right platform for your organization can feel like a huge task, but you can narrow your choices by considering your organization’s specific needs. Is customization and style flexibility a priority? Do you have tech-savvy members who can navigate multiple, complex features? What is your budget? These are just some things you can try to answer to point you to the right software. 

Remember to do your research, read reviews, and book a demo if needed. You should base your decision on which one has the best combination of features for the solutions that your organization requires.  

For more information on association management, check out the following references: 

• How To Find The Right Association Event Management Software. The AMS options available in the market can be overwhelming. Discover what features you should be looking for when selecting an AMS. 
• 10 Best Community Engagement Platforms to Boost Renewal. Leverage your community engagement platform to keep renewals coming. 
• Member Engagement: 9 Creative Ideas to Excite Your Community. In need of ideas to engage your members? We share tips in this comprehensive guide.